I always wanted to leave everything behind for a while and just drive. No deadlines, no targets. Just roads, chai stalls, people, and changing landscapes. If you have ever thought of doing an All India road trip, the first thing that might worry you is – “Kitna paisa lagega?”

Let me tell you what it truly costs to travel across India by road, from my years of planning such journeys and helping friends calculate their budgets.

 

 

Where Would You Go?

Let’s be honest – you can’t see every corner in one trip. But you can make a route that covers most states. For example: I

Delhi → Punjab → Himachal → Jammu & Kashmir → Ladakh → Uttarakhand → Uttar Pradesh → Bihar → West Bengal → North East → Odisha → Andhra Pradesh → Tamil Nadu → Kerala → Karnataka → Goa → Maharashtra → Gujarat → Rajasthan → back to Delhi.

This rough loop covers around 14,000 to 16,000 km depending on your detours.

 

Petrol Or Diesel: Your Biggest Expense

• 1.Right now (June 2025), fuel prices in India are ₹95-105 per litre
• 2. Here’s a simple calculation:

Car: Mileage ~15-17 kmpl
Total fuel needed = 15,000 km / 15 = 1000 litres
Cost: ₹95,000 – ₹1,00,000

Bike: Mileage ~35-40 kmpl
Total fuel needed = 15,000 km / 35 = ~430 litres
Cost: ₹40,000 – ₹45,000

In hilly areas, mileage drops, so keep extra money aside for that.

Toll Charges – Small But Add Up

If you are driving a car, tolls will cost around ₹10,000 – ₹15,000 for the whole trip 3.
Bikes are mostly exempted, so if you’re riding, you save this amount.

Food – The Joy Of The Journey

Eating at dhabas is part of the trip. You can manage on:

Breakfast: ₹50-100

Lunch: ₹100-150

Dinner: ₹100-150

That’s ₹300-400 per day. For a 60-day journey, food costs around ₹18,000 – ₹25,000. Of course, if you love cafes, this can double.

Where Will You Sleep?

This depends on comfort and safety:

Hotels (budget): ₹700 – ₹1200 per night → ₹42,000 – ₹72,000 for 60 days

Hostels: ₹300 – ₹500 per night → ₹18,000 – ₹30,000 for 60 days

Car camping: If you have a foldable seat setup or mattress, you can sleep in your car at petrol pumps or dhaba parking lots with permission. It’s free but not always comfortable.

Repairs & Servicing

Before leaving, full servicing is a must. During your journey, keep aside:

General repairs & servicing: ₹5,000 – ₹10,000

Tyre punctures or replacement: ₹2,000 – ₹5,000

Other Small Costs That Hurt Later

Entry tickets (monuments, wildlife parks): ₹2,000 – ₹5,000

Medical or pharmacy bills: ₹2,000 – ₹3,000

SIM recharge & extra data: ₹500 – ₹1,000

Laundry (weekly): ₹1,500 – ₹2,500

Always keep ₹15,000 – ₹20,000 as emergency buffer money.

• I still remember the day I returned home after driving all over India. I sat down with my diary and calculated how much I actually spent. Fuel burned the biggest hole in my pocket. Around ₹95,000 to ₹1,00,000 just went into petrol. My car gave okay mileage, but long highways and mountain roads used up a lot more fuel than I expected.
• Toll charges were another thing I didn’t think much about before leaving. By the end, I realised I had paid somewhere between ₹10,000 to ₹15,000 just in tolls. Almost every state border and highway had them. It felt annoying at times, but there was no way around it.
• For staying, I mostly went for budget hotels. Some nights I chose hostels to save money, and a few times I booked good hotels because my body just needed proper rest after driving for hours. Overall, I spent anywhere between ₹18,000 to ₹72,000 on places to stay, depending on the city and comfort I wanted.
• Food was simple. I mostly ate at small dhabas along the highways. Their food was fresh, hot, and felt like home-cooked meals. In two months, I spent around ₹18,000 to ₹25,000 on food. If I had eaten in cafes every day, this amount would have easily doubled.
• My car needed care too. I got it serviced once on the way, changed the engine oil, and fixed the brakes when they started acting up. For all this, I spent another ₹7,000 to ₹15,000. Without this, my journey wouldn’t have been smooth.
• Then there were random little expenses – laundry, mobile recharge, tickets for forts or temples, and some medicines when I caught a cold. All these added up to another ₹15,000 to ₹20,000.
• So in the end, my All India car trip cost me anywhere between ₹1.7 lakh to ₹2.4 lakh. But to be honest, I don’t even think about the money now. The open roads, quiet sunrises, chai with strangers, and the feeling of being free – that’s what stayed with me

 

Can You Reduce The Cost?

Definitely.

• Travel with friends to split fuel and hotel cost.
• Choose hostels or camp where safe.
• Eat at dhabas, not restaurants.
• Drive at consistent speeds for better mileage.
• Avoid unnecessary shopping or entry tickets.

Is It Worth It?

I think yes. You will see sunrises in Ladakh, rains in Kerala, endless highways in Gujarat, and silent forests in Arunachal. You will realise India is not just a country – it’s a feeling.

So, if you are saving up for a new phone or car accessory, think again. Maybe spending that money on an All India trip will give you something no gadget can – stories to tell for life.

You can also read this  : Which Is the Ghost Village in India?

 

👉 You can check out this video related to this topic as well.

 

 

https://youtu.be/Yervk1dGqHk?si=LYsRzdoOn0x0UtVd